Veterans may get more tuition options

Published: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 09:03 PM.

“They’re worried about how they’re going to pay it,” Davis said. “And when they find out that we’re a Yellow Ribbon school, you’ve lifted weight off of their shoulders.”

If the legislation passes in the 2014 session, many more loads will be lifted.

“It will give them more options,” Powell said, noting the legislation would be particularly beneficial to “younger” troops. “A lot of people go into the military to get out of the state they’re in,” so the legislation would “give them another option to be able to decide where they want to live.”

PANAMA CITY — When Dwayne Powell returned from Afghanistan, he had planned to move to Florida and work toward a college degree. However, his New Jersey residency almost blocked him from pursuing his plans.

“I did my first semester and realized I had to pay out-of-state tuition for the whole year, not just for that semester,” said the Gulf Coast State College student and president of the campus’ Armed Services Club. “I told (the admissions office), if I don’t get in-state residency — because, the G.I. Bill pays for it — then my only option is to go back to Afghanistan or Iraq so that I can get paid, because, being out of the military, that was the only skill-set I had at the time.”

Had it not been for paperwork that showed Powell had plans to move to Florida prior to being discharged, Powell would have been in a similar situation as Andrew Sloan, student at Florida State University’s Tallahassee campus, who thought his tuition would be covered under the G.I. Bill when he enrolled in 2011.

Sloan spoke at a press conference Monday at the university’s Tallahassee campus. He joined Student Body President Rosie Contreras and campus president Eric Barron in a plea for students across the state to support state Senate Bill 84 and House Bill 35, which would allow all Florida student-veterans to be automatically classified as in-state residents for tuition purposes.

The bill passed unanimously its first Senate committee Tuesday.

If the bill becomes law, all military veterans, including those who have served in the reserves, would pay in-state tuition in Florida regardless of residency status. Currently, student-veterans who are not state residents for at least one year do not qualify for in-state tuition. The policy is the same for students who aren’t veterans.

“We have to make it about an equity issue and understand that student-veterans that come back from fighting abroad should be welcomed and transitioned into society as quickly as possible, especially if they’re planning to pursue higher education,” Contreras said in a Wednesday interview.

In keeping with FSU’s initiative to become the state’s most veteran-friendly university, Monday’s press conference was “a testimony” of the university’s “commitment” to veterans, she said.

“It’s really going to take a concerted student effort to make our voices heard on this issue,” Contreras said. “I think that there’s a lot of interest across the state university system to have this legislation passed.”

Sloan told his story at the press conference about how he had to take out $10,500 in loans to meet his educational needs. Of the 350 student-veterans at the Tallahassee campus, 27 pay out-of-state fees.

At the university, about $8,000 per year is the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition costs.

“We try to work with them,” said Reinhart Lerch, communications manager for the student veterans center at the campus. “We make them aware of scholarship opportunities and other types of financial aid.”

Lerch said FSU is leading the support of the legislation because “it’s the right thing to do.”

“If this law passes, then (in-state tuition) will apply to all state universities,” he said, noting 17 other states have already passed similar legislation into law.

“We’re saying ‘lets do what 17 states have already done and be more veteran friendly,’ ” Lerch added.

Military liaison at Gulf Coast State College and retired airman Pamela Hiller said the legislation will be a critical part of supporting veterans in their transition to college education and planned careers.

The college currently has 12 student-veterans who pay out-of-state tuition out of its more than 500 student-veterans.

FSU and its sister campus in Panama City participate in Yellow Ribbon — a federal program that matches half the out-of-state tuition costs at public educational institutions and calls for institutions to pay the other half.

In order for a student-veteran to qualify for Yellow Ribbon, he must receive 100 percent benefits under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, a federal Veterans Affairs educational program that pays for in-state undergraduate tuition fees.

FSU in Tallahassee has five Yellow Ribbon recipients and FSU Panama City has one.

Because of the expense of the program, GCSC had to discontinue providing the benefit to their student-veterans.

“I always try to put a positive spin on it. … (But) It’s a little disheartening because it starts to register that ‘this is not going to be a possibility for me right now, I’m going to have to wait a year,’ ” Hiller said of reactions by veterans after learning their out-of-state tuition options.

“I would hope that any state … would honor their veterans by passing the legislation,” she added.

GCSC President Jim Kerley said that while Yellow Ribbon was an expense the college couldn’t continue, it’s important to get the legislation approved.

“We’ll do whatever we can to get that past the Legislature,” said Kerley, who is a veteran of the Navy. “We want to help more veterans to go anywhere they want to go and not have to worry about out-of-state tuition.”

Kerley said he wouldn’t have been able to go to college without Veterans Affairs benefits.

“We want to honor our veterans. … And I think we should give them the choice,” he added.

Director of Veterans Affairs at FSU Panama City Marcie Davis said when student-veterans qualify for Yellow Ribbon, their reaction is one of relief.

“They’re worried about how they’re going to pay it,” Davis said. “And when they find out that we’re a Yellow Ribbon school, you’ve lifted weight off of their shoulders.”

If the legislation passes in the 2014 session, many more loads will be lifted.

“It will give them more options,” Powell said, noting the legislation would be particularly beneficial to “younger” troops. “A lot of people go into the military to get out of the state they’re in,” so the legislation would “give them another option to be able to decide where they want to live.”

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